


Cold Nights

by SalineCoelacanth



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Animal Death, Blood, Blood and Injury, F/F, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24324337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalineCoelacanth/pseuds/SalineCoelacanth
Summary: As the weather in Ninjago begins to grow colder, Jay discovers something dangerous about himself.
Relationships: Cole/Jay Walker, Kai/Zane (Ninjago), Nya/P.I.X.A.L. (Ninjago)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 107





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ninja take a day to rest and relax, until night falls.

It was a peaceful day in Ninjago and the ninja were all at the monastery. Kai, Zane, Cole and Jay were all watching TV in the living room. They were flipping through the channels, attempting to find something interesting to watch. It felt like every time they found a good show to watch, it was at the end of the episode already or it was a bad episode none of them wanted to watch.

Kai let out a groan. “Isn’t there anything on?”

“Perhaps we could watch the news?” Zane suggested.

“The news!?” Jay complained, slouching on the couch. “The news is boring!”

“There isn’t really anything else to watch,” Cole said. He grabbed the remote, changing it to the news. The screen changed, showing the weatherman pointing to a map of Ninjago.

“Great, the weather,” Jay continued complaining. “That’s the most boring part of the news!” Jay let out a quick yawn before leaning over to lay on Cole’s lap. “Wake me up when something interesting happens.”

The other ninja laughed quietly at Jay being overdramatic. The ninja all turned their attention back to the TV as the weatherman continued talking.

“A cold front will be moving into Ninjago City, making it colder than usual, ” the weatherman informed.

“Strange,” Zane commented. “This area of Ninjago is normally quite warm. It doesn't normally reach temperatures this cold.”

Kai shrugged. “The weather is weird,” he said. He casually wrapped his arm around the nindroid. “You know, Zane, if you get cold, you could always come warm up in my room.”

“Don’t worry, I will be fine,” Zane assured, clearly unaware of Kai’s flirting. “I’m a nindroid, I don’t get uncomfortably cold like humans do.”

“Whatever,” Kai replied, disappointed.

“Wow, Jay was right, this is boring ” Cole commented. “Are you sure there isn’t anything else on?”

“Oh, be careful Cole. Try not to move too much,” Kai warned, a smirk on his face.

Cole was confused at first. He looked down at his lap and saw Jay was completely passed out of his lap.

“Woah, he actually fell asleep?” Cole said. “Guess he really was bored from the news, huh?”

“He seemed perfectly awake a while ago,” Kai responded. “Why’d he pass out so quickly?”

“Perhaps he stayed up too late playing video games,” Zane joked. 

“Ha, no,” Cole laughed. “If he did that, we would’ve heard him.”

Jay mumbled slightly, turning his head towards Cole and burrowing his face into his shirt.

“Alright, I’d better take care of him,” Cole said, quieting his voice slightly so he didn’t wake Jay up. “I’ll be right back.” Cole carefully scooped the blue ninja into his arms before standing up. He left the room, heading for Jay’s room. He quietly opened the door before walking over to Jay’s bed and carefully placing him on it. Jay made another soft grumble noise, turning away from Cole as he covered him with the blanket. Cole gave Jay a soft smile before turning away, leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

Cole got back to the living room and heard Kai giggling. He looked over to the couch and saw Kai on top of Zane, cuddling the nindroid. Zane’s synthetic skin has turned a bright red.

“K-Kai, Cole’s going to be back and-” Zane stammered.

“Really? I was gone for like, two seconds!” Cole interrupted.

Kai and Zane both sat up, looking at the black ninja. “Sorry, Cole,” Zane apologized. “Kai was just in one of those moods.”

“I’m ALWAYS in the mood to love my boyfriend!” Kai interjected. He gave the nindroid a quick kiss on the cheek, causing his circuits to heat up.

Cole chuckled, walking over to a separate chair to give Kai and Zane some space together.

“Kai, you love finding excuses to get close to Zane, don’t you?” Cole teased.

“Hey, Jay does the same thing to you!” Kai argued.

“Fair point,” Cole agreed. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. “Well I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still bored.”

“Yeah,” Kai replied. “But what else are we gonna do?” Kai turned towards Cole who looked like he had an idea. “What are you planning?”

“You guys wanna play Jay’s new video game?” Cole asked.

“But if Jay finds out we played it without asking him first, he will be very mad at us,” Zane responded.

“Not if he knows it was my idea,” Cole assured. “He can’t stay mad at me for long periods of time. He’ll just yell at me once and then forget about it.”   
“Well it beats just sitting around doing nothing,” Kai said. “Let’s do it.”

The three of them turned the game console on and started up the game, making sure to start a new profile so they didn’t mess with Jay’s save. The three of them ended up playing for a long time. By the time the sun went down, the three of them were still too focussed on the game to put it down. Eventually, they all decided it was getting really late and they needed to stop playing. Kai and Zane were both heading towards their rooms while Cole turned the console off.

Cole yawned as he looked at the clock. “Dang, we really played for a long time,” he said. “Looks like I won’t be getting a lot of sleep tonight.”

Cole made his way to his room, closing the door behind him. He shivered slightly. “Wow, they weren’t kidding about it being cold,” he commented. “I better grab my extra blanket.”

Cole quickly grabbed his spare blanket from his closet and went over to his bed, laying down. He wrapped himself in both of his blankets and closed his eyes, ready to fall asleep. He was quickly interrupted as he heard a loud THUD sound. Cole sat up, looking around his room. Nothing in his room seemed out of the ordinary, so he just shrugged and layed back down. Cole attempted to get himself comfy again when he heard a CRASH, even louder than the previous sound. Cole threw his blankets off and got up, leaving his room. He looked down the hallway but didn’t see anything.

“Cole? What’s going on?”

Cole turned around to see Kai blinking sleepily with Zane close behind him.

“I don’t know,” Cole replied. “I just heard a loud crash.”

“We did too,” Zane informed.

Cole turned around again and walked down the hall towards Jay’s room. He saw the door was wide open which worried him slightly. He looked into his room to see if there were any clues to what he heard.

“Jay?” Cole called quietly. He looked around the room, but Jay was nowhere to be seen. Jay’s blanket was ripped off of his bed. Different pieces of blue cloth scattered the floor. Cole looked down and noticed strange claw markings scratched into the floorboards. He kneeled down to get a closer look at them.

“Is Jay there?” Kai asked, poking his head into the room.

Cole turned to Kai, his face full of fear. “He’s gone!”

“What!?” Kai asked. “Where’d he go?”

Zane entered the room and instantly started scanning the claw marks Cole found.

“You finding anything?” Cole asked.

“Strange… I don’t recognize whatever creature made these,” Zane informed. “But it seems that whatever came through here took Jay.”

“We have to go find him!” Cole urged, standing back up.

“Should we go get the others?” Kai asked.

“There’s no time.” Cole argued. “Jay’s in trouble, we can’t waste a second!”

Cole ran out of Jay’s room, heading for their vehicles. Kai and Zane looked at each other before following Cole into the night. A cold wind blew through, causing Cole’s hair to blow in his face. He didn’t seem too bothered as he just pushed it aside. He made it to his earth driller and opened it so he could climb in. Kai and Zane quickly ran up to meet up with him.

“We have to split up,” Cole ordered. “That way we can find him easier.”

Kai and Zane nodded before running to get their own vehicles. Cole started up the earth driller and quickly rode towards the city. He figured that would be his best way to track down Jay. He attempted to find a signal indicating where Jay was, but it seemed that Jay’s tracker was broken. Cole assumed whatever this creature was broke it when they took Jay. 

As Cole continued driving down the streets of Ninjago City, he noticed similar claw marks on the side of different buildings. 

“I must be heading the right way,” Cole figured. He eventually made his way to an alleyway. He wouldn’t be able to drive his earth driller down it, so he opened it up and climbed out. He instantly wished he could stay inside the driller as the cold wind blasted against his exposed arms. “Remind me again why I didn’t put any sleeves on this outfit?” Cole asked himself. He took a deep breath before slowly walking down the alleyway. He saw some more claw marks in the ground, along with another small piece of blue cloth. Cole leaned over to pick up the cloth, clutching it in his hands. “Whoever did this is going to pay.”

Cole was interrupted from his thoughts as he smelled something rotten. He looked over and saw a dead rat on the ground. Cole stepped back slightly. The rat looked freshly killed which worried Cole. Cole shivered slightly as another cold breeze blew past. He looked up as he heard a quiet noise in the distance. A rabbit quickly ran away from something, turning the corner towards Cole. Before Cole could fully process what was going on, a larger, mysterious creature lunged at the rabbit, killing it instantly with its sharp claws.

“WHAH!?” Cole cried out, stepping back in fear. He couldn’t make out what the creature looked like due to the poor lighting. The creature leaned towards it’s kill, sniffing it a couple of times before opening its jaw wide, grabbing the rabbit and swallowing it whole. “Eww,” Cole winced.

The creature snapped its head towards Cole, its bright yellow eyes shining in the shadows. Its eyes seemed to narrow as it stared at Cole. It slowly started to crawl towards him, causing the ninja to slowly back away. The creature started hissing at the black ninja as it started getting closer and closer. As it entered the light, Cole was able to get a better look at it. It seemed to resemble a snake, but it was far different from any serpentine Cole had seen before. It had messy, dark green hair. Their scales were a dark, lime green color and its long tail twitched slightly. The creature's body was also covered in ripped clothing, although it was hard to tell what the clothes looked like before. The creature flexed its claws as it looked at Cole, it’s yellow eyes piercing to stare back at.

Cole continued backing away from the mysterious snake until he hit a wall. The snake continued to slowly approach him when Cole’s communicator went off.

“Cole?” Kai’s voice sounded from the device. “Have you found Jay yet?”

“No,” Cole whispered, “but I think I found the thing that took him.”

“Really? Can you tell what it is?”

“Well I- ACK!” Cole yelled as the snake suddenly lunged at him.

“Cole? COLE!?” Kai panicked, “Cole, what’s going on!?”

“Can’t talk right now!” Cole responded, managing to click the communicator off.

The snake had Cole pinned down, it’s sharp claws digging deep into his shoulders. It hissed at Cole again, bits of its spit flying onto the ninja’s face. Cole winced as he struggled to free himself from the snake’s claws. The snake leaned it’s face closer to Cole’s, sniffing the ninja. It then let out another hiss before attempting the bite at Cole’s neck. Cole managed to kick the snake off of him before it could bite him. The snake was sent flying at the wall, letting out a painful yelp as it hit the wall. Cole slowly stood back up, wincing at the pain in his shoulders. He noticed blood slowly spilling from the cuts, but he tried his best to ignore it. 

He turned his attention back to the snake who was slowly getting back up from Cole’s attack. It shook his head before turning back to Cole, growling at him. Cole attempted to run back to his earth driller, but the snake was able to quickly run in front of him, cutting him off. Cole started to back away from the snake again as it hissed at him.

“What did you do with Jay!?” Cole demanded.

The snake just continued growling as it slowly crawled closer. It tried to lunge at Cole again, but he moved out of the way. The snake quickly turned back, attempting again to attack Cole. As it jumped past him, Cole managed to grab the snake’s tail. He yanked on it before throwing the snake again towards another wall. Small cracks formed in the wall as the snake’s body slammed against it. Cole started to approach the snake again. He punched his arms together, creating his lava arms.

“I’m gonna ask you again,” Cole said with an intimidating voice. “What did you do with Jay?”

The snake seemed scared of Cole now. Before Cole could get up to it, the snake ran past him, trying to escape.

“Hey!” Cole yelled, his lava arms fading. “Get back here!”

The snake continued trying to run, but was stopped as Cole grabbed his tail again. He threw the snake back again, although not as hard this time. The snake shook its head as it tried to recover before glaring at Cole, letting out a soft growl. Cole kneeled down to meet the snake at eye level.

“Where is he?” Cole asked.

The snake paused for a moment as it looked at the scratches on Cole’s shoulders. It leaned closer to Cole, sniffing the scratches. Cole started to feel confused and slightly uncomfortable. He looked around and saw the sky beginning to brighten up slightly. He turned back to the snake who was still sniffing him.

“What’s your deal?” Cole asked, confused.

The snake finally stopped sniffing Cole and leaned in to lick Cole’s scratches.

“Uhh…” Cole started feeling extremely uncomfortable. He started to push the snake away from him, which made the snake angry. It growled at Cole, looking like it was about to attack again. “Oh no, not again!” Cole yelled, preparing himself for the attack. Cole flinched, closing his eyes as he prepared for the worst. However, nothing happened. Cole slowly opened his eyes. He looked up and saw the sky was getting even brighter now before looking down at his lap. The snake was laying in his lap. It let out a yawn as it seemed to be falling asleep. Cole was taken aback and wasn’t sure what to do about this snake creature that had fallen asleep on him. He was interrupted from his thoughts as he heard his communicator go off. 

“Cole? Is everything ok?” Zane asked. “Kai told me you were in trouble.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Cole assured. “I found that creature that kidnapped Jay and they attacked me, but I’m ok now.”

“Are you sure?” 

“Yeah, I just got a couple of scratches, nothing major ” Cole replied. “But that creature I was fighting, uh, they kinda fell asleep on me.”

“What?” Zane questioned. “It’s sleeping on you?”

“I don’t know, it looked like they were gonna attack me, but then they just fell asleep on my lap!”

“That’s very… strange…” Zane thought. “Well, have you been able to find Jay? Kai and I aren’t having a lot of luck.”

Cole let out a sigh. “No, I-” Cole was cut off as he heard the snake start to mumble. It sounded like it was in pain. Its breaths suddenly began getting shorter and shorter while its claws dug into the ground. It also started squirming around, making Cole feel very worried that it might kick him or claw at him. The snake then let out a scream of pain as its scales began to disappear, it’s skin turning to a paler color. Its tail started shrinking until it disappeared completely and it’s grip to the ground seemed to soften as its claws seemed to disappear as well. Cole gasped as he watched the snake transform, his face completely full of shock.

“Cole? Are you still there?” Zane asked. “What’s going on?”

Cole paused for a moment before turning to his communicator. “I found Jay.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finding Jay, the ninja go back to the monastery and try to figure out what happened to him

Cole just sat silently, still in complete shock. One second he was fighting against an evil snake creature, and the next that creature fell asleep on his lap. But the thing he still couldn’t grasp was the snake transforming into Jay. Cole didn’t know what to do now.

_ Should I wake him up?  _ Cole thought, looking down at Jay sleeping peacefully on his lap.  _ What do I do? _

__ Suddenly, Cole didn’t have to make a decision, because Jay yawned and slowly opened his eyes. “Ugh, my back hurts…” Jay mumbled as he sleepily sat up. He stretched before looking at Cole. “Oh, hey Cole, what are you doing here?”

“Uh…” Cole didn’t know what to say.

“Hold up, what are we doing outside?” Jay asked, looking around the alleyway. “I guess that explains why my back is hurting…” He turned back to Cole. “So, what are-” he paused as he noticed the deep scratches on Cole’s shoulders, his face going pale. “Cole! What happened to your arms!?”

“I’ll explain everything on the way back…” Cole responded, standing up. He held out his hand to help Jay up. Jay was about to take it, when he noticed his gloves. They were all ripped up. He looked at his clothes and saw they were all ripped up as well. Half of his sleeves were completely ripped off along with his pant legs. There was another massive tear in the side.

“Cole?” Jay looked up at him, his voice sounding more worried. “Cole, what happened to my clothes?”

“I’ll explain on the way back, ok?” Cole repeated, trying to sound calm. 

Jay finally took Cole’s hand and stood up. He slowly followed Cole back to the earth driller. Cole turned back as he noticed Jay was walking slow.

“You ok?” Cole asked.

“Yeah, my body just feels really sore for some reason,” Jay explained.

Cole flinched slightly as he realized why Jay was probably hurting so badly. Jay took notice of this.

“Is something wrong, Cole?”

“No no, it’s fine, it’s just uh… I may have thrown you at a wall… really hard…”

“What!? Why would you do that!?” Jay asked angrily.

“I said I’ll explain everything on the way back!” Cole snapped back.

Jay was quiet after that. The two of them made their way to the earth driller and Cole helped Jay climb into the back seat while he got into the driver's seat. He started it up and started riding back to the monastery. Jay looked out the window before turning back to Cole.

“So, what happened back there?” Jay asked, his voice calm.

Cole let out a sigh. “I’m still trying to process everything that happened,” he admitted. “So, last night, Zane, Kai and I were heading to bed, when we heard a loud crash. We went to investigate and found you were missing. We figured you were kidnapped by… something, so we came to look for you. And that’s when I found this snake creature that attacked me. I assumed that snake was the one who kidnapped you, but then…”

“That’s weird…” Jay thought. “I don’t remember getting kidnapped by a snake last night. Well, I guess that explains how you got those scratches. I hope you gave that snake the beat down.” Jay let out a little laugh.

“Yeah, about that…” Cole continued. “That snake… was you.”

“WHAT!?” Jay screamed. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was sitting down, he definitely would have fallen over. Jay stared blankly for a while before shaking his head. “Cole, what do you mean? I’m not a snake, that couldn’t have been me! You were probably just seeing things or something!”

Cole shook his head. “Jay, I SAW you change back! I watched that snake turn back into… into you.”

“No, this doesn’t make any sense,” Jay tried to reason. “Why would I just randomly turn into a snake and attack you!?”

“I don’t know!” Cole replied, an edge to his tone. He let out a sigh, calming himself down. “I don’t know,” he repeated, quieter this time. “But we’ll figure it out, ok?”

Jay slouched in his seat. “Ok,” he replied. He started looking out the window again, but he quickly found himself glancing back at Cole. He could just barely see one of the scratches on his shoulders. The blood still looked fresh. Jay winced as he saw the blood. “I… I did that to you, didn’t I?”

“Hm?” Cole replied. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

“It looks pretty deep…” Jay commented. “You sure you’re ok?”

“Look, Jay, right now I want to focus on you, ok?” Cole responded. “I want to make sure you’re ok. It doesn’t matter if I’m ok or not.”

“But I-”

“Just don’t worry about it,” Cole interrupted. “We’re almost back, so just, I don’t know, look out the window to distract yourself or something.”

“I tried that, but I just can’t help it.”

Cole sighed again, not sure what to say to Jay. They eventually arrived back at the monastery. It looked like Kai and Zane were already back, so they wouldn’t have to wait for them. 

Cole and Jay got out of the earth driller and made their way inside. They noticed Kai and Zane were talking to Lloyd, Nya and Pixal, explaining why they were gone. They all turned back as they saw Cole and Jay enter the room.

“Hey, you guys are back!” Kai cheered. The smile on his face instantly faded as he saw the scratches on Cole’s shoulders. “Oh God, Cole what happened?”

“I uh…” Cole was interrupted as Pixal instantly walked up and started scanning Cole’s shoulders.

“We better get these scratches cleaned up,” she said. “They look pretty deep.”

“Alright,” Cole replied as Pixal dragged him away.

Everyone watched Cole leave before turning back to Jay.

“So, what happened to you, Jay?” Lloyd asked.

“Yeah, and what happened to your clothes?” Kai added.

“I uh…” Jay replied awkwardly, looking down at himself. He let out an awkward laugh. “I guess I should go change out, huh?”

“Wait, Jay-” Lloyd tried to stop him, but he was already leaving to go to his room. The four remaining ninja all looked at each other, confused.

Jay made his way to his room. His door was wide open. He assumed the others were too focussed on finding him that they didn’t bother to close the door. He slowly walked in as he saw the disaster his room was in. His blanket was normally neatly placed on his bed, but right now it looked like someone had violently ripped it off of the bed. Multiple scraps of blue cloth were scattered on the ground. Jay slowly walked up to a piece of the blue fabric and kneeled down to pick it up. He noticed a massive scratch in the floor underneath the cloth. Jay instantly dropped the fabric on the floor, gasping softly as he saw the claw marks. He cautiously rubbed his fingers over the markings.

“What happened to me?” Jay whispered.

Cole was sitting in the infirmary with Pixal. Pixal was just finishing applying disinfectant to the scratches. She started wrapping bandages around the scratches. Cole flinched a little bit, but stayed quiet. Pixal looked up at him.

“You seem troubled,” she said. “Is there something on your mind?”

Cole let out a sigh. “It’s Jay,” he replied. “There’s something wrong with him.”

Before Cole could explain further, he heard the door open. He and Pixal quickly turned to see Kai in the doorway, concern on his face.

“Cole, you need to explain what’s going on,” Kai said.

Cole got up and Kai led him to Jay’s room, Pixal following. They entered the room. Lloyd and Nya were standing off to the side while Zane was sitting on the floor next to Jay, his hand on his back to comfort him. Jay was curled in a ball, facing away from the door. Cole couldn’t see his face, but he could hear the panic in Jay’s breathing.

“Jay, what’s wrong?” he asked, walking up to him.

Jay turned to Cole. “Cole, what happened to me last night?” he pleaded. “I… I don’t remember anything after I fell asleep. What did I do?”

The others all turned towards Cole.

“It’s like I told you earlier,” Cole explained. “You turned into a snake and escaped into the city. I don’t know how or why, but that’s what happened.”

Jay quietly turned back to the claw marks in the ground, rubbing his fingers over them again.

“Wait, WHAT!?” Kai interrupted. “You mean that snake thing that attacked you last night was actually Jay?”

Cole nodded. “Again, I don’t know how it happened, but yeah. That was Jay.”

Jay wrapped his arms around himself. “I’m a monster!” he cried.

“No you’re not,” Cole assured him. “You’re a ninja, not a monster. We’re gonna figure this out and we’re gonna fix it, ok?”

Jay nodded quietly. “Ok…”

Zane let out a sigh before standing up. “We’ve all had a long night,” he said. “Perhaps we should eat some breakfast to try and clear our minds.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Lloyd agreed.

“No thanks, I’m not hungry,” Jay replied.

“Really?” Kai questioned. “But you haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday.”

“Maybe he’s still just panicked from last night,” Nya suggested.

“No, it’s not that,” Jay said. “I just don’t feel hungry.”

“That’s weird,” Lloyd responded.

Cole gave an uncomfortable look as he realized something. “Uhh, yeah… Jay kinda ate an entire rabbit whole when I found him…”

“I DID WHAT!?” Jay screamed, jumping onto his feet. “Aww geez, I think I’m gonna be sick!” 

“No no, it’s ok!” Cole tried to calm him down. “You just need to uh… sit down for a while.”

“Ok,” Jay replied, “ok, yeah, I’ll be fine.” Jay tried to stay positive. Now was not the time to start panicking. Although he had already panicked about all of this earlier, Jay just had to tell himself that everything was going to be alright. They were going to figure out what was going on with him and find a way to fix it, and then everything would be perfectly ok again.

The others had a quick breakfast before Kai and Cole decided to take a nap. They had been up all night searching for Jay and the sleepiness had finally started to settle in. The rest of the team decided to give Jay some space. Jay sat in his room. He had finally changed into some different clothes and cleaned his room up a little bit. Sadly, he couldn’t fix the scratches in the floor. He’d have to get entirely new flooring to fix that. Jay looked out his window. He felt a cold breeze blow by, so he quickly bundled up in his blanket to keep warm. Eventually, Pixal came into his room to check on him.

“Are you feeling better?” she asked.

“Yeah, a little bit,” Jay responded. “Is everyone else ok?”

Pixal nodded. “Cole just woke up from his nap. Kai is still resting however.”

“Yeah, Kai really likes sleeping in when he can,” Jay laughed.

“Do you mind if I run a few tests on you?” Pixal asked. “I would like to try and figure out what’s going on with you.”

Jay nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

Jay followed Pixal to the infirmary. They had a computer in there that would allow Pixal to check if anything was wrong with Jay’s DNA. Jay sat down and Pixal pulled out a needle.

“I am going to have to take a blood sample,” she informed.

“Alright,” Jay replied. He usually hated needles, but right now, he didn’t care. He winced slightly as Pixal took some of his blood before taking it over to the computer to take a look at it. Jay attempted to sit patiently as he waited for Pixal to finish up. He started rocking back and forth and kicking his legs to try and entertain himself.

“Hmm… that’s strange,” Pixal commented as she looked at the data.

“What is it?” Jay asked.

“You appear to have traces of Fangpyre venom in your blood,” Pixal informed.

“Wh-what!?” Jay stumbled back a little bit. “Fangpyre venom!? But that happened so long ago!”

“What happened so long ago?” Pixal asked.

“Oh that’s right, you weren’t there,” Jay remembered. “A long time ago, I sorta accidentally pricked my hand on a Fangpyre skeleton that still had venom in it. But I thought all the venom was gone when Nya kissed me!”

“Why would Nya kissing you get rid of the venom?”

“Because it raised my heart rate or something like that,” Jay explained. “I don’t remember all of the details, ok?”

“Well it appears all the venom was not removed from your body,” Pixal replied, looking back at the data. She sighed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find anything else.”

“That’s ok, Pixal,” Jay assured. “You did find something at least.”

“I may be able to figure something out if I study this data more,” Pixal informed. “But it will take a while. I may not be able to finish until tomorrow.”

“Ok,” Jay said. He got out of his seat and left the room. He rubbed his arm slightly where Pixal took his blood. 

“Oh, there you are.”

Jay looked up to see Cole in the hallway. 

“Hey, Cole,” Jay greeted.

“You doing ok?” Cole asked, still concerned about the blue ninja.

“Yeah,” Jay answered. “Pixal just ran some tests on me to try and figure out what’s wrong.”

“Did she find anything?”

“Kinda?” Jay replied. “Apparently I still have Fangpyre venom in me.”

“What? Wait, but if you got the venom so long ago, why are you just now turning back into a snake?” Cole questioned.

“I don’t know, but Pixal’s gonna try to find out,” Jay let out a yawn. “I’m starting to get sleepy. I think I’m gonna go take a nap.”

“Jay, it’s the middle of the day,” Cole pointed out. “And you slept all day yesterday.”

Jay rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know,” he replied with a yawn. “I’m just feeling really tired all of a sudden.”

Jay started walking towards his room. Cole stood there, thinking for a moment before grabbing Jay’s arm.

“Agh! Cole, what the heck!?”

“Jay, what if that’s what did it?” Cole theorized.

“What?” Jay questioned. “What are you talking about?”

“Think about it,” Cole explained, “Yesterday, you randomly fell asleep in the middle of the day, and at night, you turned into a snake!”

Jay gasped. “I think you might be onto something!” he replied. “So if falling asleep turned me into a snake, all I have to do is not fall asleep!”

“It’s worth a shot,” Cole agreed. “We don’t really have anything else to go off of.”

“Alright, I just gotta stay awake.” Jay decided. “This should be easy!”

“Are you sure?” Cole asked. “How are you gonna stay awake all night when you’re already feeling tired?”

“A lot of coffee and determination,” Jay replied. “This’ll work, I can feel it.” Jay let out another yawn. “But uh, just in case, can you be here to help me stay awake?”

“Of course.”

“Alright then, it’s a plan!” Jay said. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boi some snake shenanigans are happening. I know I didn't add any notes on the first chapter because I was just really tired and I wanted to post the first chapter before I forgot. Anyway, I'm really proud of this au and I hope you guys enjoy reading the fic about it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay tries to stay up all night to prevent himself from turning into a snake again while Cole is there for moral support.

The sun was beginning to set in Ninjago. That night, Jay planned to stay up to try and prevent himself from transforming into a snake again. He made sure to drink a lot of coffee, but not too much to where he got overly hyper. Jay and Cole were both in Jay’s room, preparing for the night. Jay pulled up a chair and tossed some rope to Cole.

“Uh, Jay?” Cole questioned, looking down at the rope in his hands.

Jay seemed to ignore Cole as he sat down in the chair. He looked up at Cole. “Alright, tie me up,” he directed.

“What!?” Cole asked. “Jay, I’m not gonna tie you up!”

“Listen, Cole,” Jay said. “I don’t wanna take any risks. If I end up falling asleep and changing into a snake again, I don’t want you to get hurt.” Jay looked away. “Or anyone for that matter…”

Cole was still hesitant. He let out a sigh. “Ok, I’ll do it,” he agreed.

“Thanks,” Jay replied with a smile.

Cole started wrapping the blue ninja up in the rope, tying him to the chair. He tightened the knot, careful not to make it too tight where it would hurt Jay.

“Is that good?” Cole asked.

“Yep!” Jay replied, trying to have an optimistic attitude in his voice.

“Ok,” Cole walked over and pulled up another chair. He sat down across from Jay so he could keep a close eye on him. He rested his head in his hands as he stared at Jay’s face.

“Alright,” Jay cheered, “I think I can do this!” Almost instantly after saying this, Jay let out a yawn.

“Already getting tired, huh?” Cole asked. “This might be harder for you than we thought.”

“It’ll be ok,” Jay assured. “I just need a distraction. Uh… think of something to distract me.”

“Alright,” Cole thought for a moment.  _ What’s something that would distract him?  _ Cole was interrupted from his thoughts as he saw Jay shivering. “Are you cold?”

“A little bit,” Jay admitted. “But you know I like sleeping with the window open.”

Cole let out a chuckle. He stood up and walked over to close the window.

“Hey, don’t close it!” Jay argued.

“Sorry Jay, but if you want me to stay in here all night with you, I’m gonna close the window.”

“Aww, c’mon, please?” Jay pleaded. 

Cole looked back at him. Jay was giving him puppy dog eyes, a look he knew Cole had a hard time resisting. Cole sighed. “Alright, fine. We’ll leave the window open for a little bit.”

Cole walked back to his seat and sat down. He noticed Jay continued shivering. His body seemed to be shaking a lot more than usual.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Cole asked.

“I’m fi-AGH!” Jay abruptly leaned forward a little bit, flinching from some mysterious pain. It felt almost as if someone had punched him in his gut. He let out a soft growl which started to concern Cole a little bit.

“Jay?” Cole asked nervously. “You ok?”

“I’m… fine,” Jay replied, looking back up at Cole.

Cole’s eyes went wide. He leaned back in his chair slightly.

“What?” Jay asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Your eyes,” Cole replied, “they turned yellow.”

Jay’s irises had turned a bright yellow color, similar to when he was a snake the night before. His eyes also looked sharper than normal.

“Heh heh,” Jay laughed nervously. “Maybe I need to stay up better.”

“How do you stay up ‘better’?”

“I don’t know!” Jay snapped, growling.

Cole flinched back from Jay. He saw his teeth starting to get slightly sharper, much like his gaze. Jay continued glaring at Cole before quickly calming his stare, giving Cole a worried look.

“I-I’m sorry,” Jay apologized. “I don’t know where that came from.”

“It must be the Fangpyre venom,” Cole guessed. “It’s messing with your head.”

“Yeah… yeah ok,” Jay took some quick breaths, trying to calm himself down. He shook his head, thinking it would help keep him in control. “Is it hot in here?” he asked. “I feel hot.”

“Jay, you were just shivering a couple seconds ago,” Cole replied. “It’s freezing in here.”

Jay started squirming aggressively in the chair, making little grunting noises. “AGH!” Jay yelled in pain, leaning over again.

“Jay-”

“Untie me, Cole,” Jay demanded, staring at Cole with his piercing, yellow eyes. He started growling again as his breaths started getting heavier and heavier.

“I can’t do that,” Cole replied. “You wanted me to tie you up so you couldn’t hurt anyone, remember?”

“Well now I want you to untie me!” Jay shouted, his fangs growing bigger. “AGH!” Jay screamed, louder than Cole had ever heard him scream before.

“Jay!” Cole yelled, standing up. “Jay, are you ok?” He started to reach a hand out but Jay quickly snapped at him.

“Don’t touch me!” Jay hissed. “RAGH!” Jay continued yelling in agony. Small tears were starting to form in his eyes. He clutched onto the bottom of his chair. “Don’t… come any closer…” Jay warned, out of breath.

Cole stared at Jay silently for a moment before sitting back down. Cole started to hear the sound of fabric ripping. He noticed Jay’s fingers slowly morphing into claws as they tore through his gloves, digging into the wooden chair. Cole looked back at Jay’s face, fear in his eyes as he watched the ninja transform.

“Agh!” Jay yelled as he started wriggling again, even more aggressively this time. He continued grunting and growling as he struggled to free himself. Cole noticed the ninja’s pale skin starting to turn a sickly green color, his hair growing darker as well.

“Jay, you’re really starting to freak me out,” Cole said, his voice slightly shaky.

“ **I SAID I’M FINE!** ” Jay hissed. “ACK!” Jay screamed in pain again. Jay’s tears started growing bigger as the pain became more and more to handle. Jay’s body started shaking more violently as sharp scales started poking out of his skin, tearing through his sleeves. “AAGH!” Jay continued screaming as he felt his bones begin to shift. Cole could hear the sound of Jay’s body cracking slowly which made him feel extremely uncomfortable. The fabric around Jay’s feet slowly started ripping until his newly formed claws completely tore the clothing apart. Jay couldn’t stop screaming in agony as his transformation continued.

“Jay, c’mon!” Cole pleaded. “You have to fight it!”

“ **I’M TRYING!** ” Jay shouted. “I-I can’t do it! I can’t!” Jay felt a tail begin to grow, tearing a hole in his pants as the tail exploded out, freeing itself. “ **COLE!** ” Jay cried out, tears streaming down his face. “AGH!” Jay screamed as another wave of pain overwhelmed his body.

All Cole could do was watch in horror as the person he cared about the most transformed into a monster. Jay leaned forward in the chair breathing heavily, his tail swishing back and forth.

“Jay?” Cole asked quietly. “Are you still there?”

Jay quickly snapped his head up towards Cole, hissing at him. Cole jumped back. 

“Jay…” Cole whispered. He watched silently as Jay started squirming again to try and free himself. Although Cole had already seen Jay like this before, actually watching Jay go through the pain of turning into this creature was almost too much for Cole to handle. He didn’t know what to do now. He wanted to help Jay, but he didn’t know how or if there was even anything he  _ could  _ do to help him.

Cole turned around as he heard the door open behind him. He saw Kai entering the room.

“Hey guys, I just wanted to check up on- OH MY GOD! WHAT IS THAT!?” Kai yelled when he saw Jay. “Is… is that Jay?”

“Yep,” Cole replied.

“Geez, he looks terrible,” Kai commented.

Jay let out another hiss, this time aimed towards Kai. He leaned forward and ended up leaning too far and falling forward, the chair still tied to him.

Kai attempted to stifle a laugh. “Ok yeah, that’s definitely Jay.”

Jay scowled up at Kai.

“Uh, he can’t comprehend what we’re saying, can he?” Kai asked, turning to Cole.

“Maybe?” Cole replied, shrugging. “I mean, he didn’t remember anything after transforming the first time.”

“Yeah, but wasn’t he asleep the first time?”

“Yeah…”

Jay looked up at the two of them as they talked to each other. He started squirming again to try and free himself, but continued to struggle. Jay managed to wiggle his arms slightly and was able to move his wrist around. He turned his claws towards the rope and started cutting through it while Cole and Kai were distracted.

“So, he won’t remember this when he changes back?” Kai questioned, continuing the conversation.

“Look, I don’t know,” Cole replied, annoyed. “All I know is- ACK!”

Cole was cut off as Jay lunged at him, now free from the rope. He knocked Cole onto the ground and slashed at Cole’s arms.

“Cole!” Kai yelled. Without thinking, he kicked Jay off of the black ninja, knocking him onto the floor. “Cole, are you ok?” Kai asked, helping him up.

“Hey, be careful with him!” Cole said. “He’s still Jay! I don’t want him getting hurt.”

Jay got back up, shaking his head before turning back towards the ninja, growling at them.

“Wait, Cole, that’s it!” Kai realized. “He’s still Jay! Maybe we can get through to him and make him snap out of it!”

“It’s worth a shot,” Cole agreed. “We need to find something to calm him down.”

The two of them looked around the room while also dodging Jay’s attacks. Cole rolled out of the way of one of Jay’s scratches and landed next to his bed. He noticed a strange lump underneath the covers and moved the blanket, revealing a stuffed animal.

Cole gasped. “Mr. Cuddlywump!” He quickly grabbed the stitched up toy and turned back towards Jay who was already slowly approaching him. Jay lifted up a claw to attack, but stopped as Cole held out the stuffed animal towards the snake. Jay froze, staring at the toy with wide eyes.

“Do you remember him?” Cole asked nervously. “It’s Mr. Cuddlywump, remember?”

Jay let out a soft, harmless growl as he slowly raised his claw towards Mr. Cuddlywump.

“Cole, I think it’s working!” Kai called from the other side of the room.

“Yeah, I think so too,” Cole agreed, smiling.

Jay slowly reached his claw up, looking like he was about to grab the toy, but then he violently smacked the toy out of Cole’s hand before hissing again.

“WHAH!” Cole yelled in surprise.

Jay pounced on the toy, completely tearing it to shreds.

“I don’t think Zane will be able to stitch that up,” Kai said as he watched Jay shred his beloved stuffed animal.

Jay quickly snapped his head towards Kai, stuffing hanging from his mouth. Without hesitation, he ran at the red ninja, ready to attack. He swiped at Kai’s arm, easily tearing through the fabric and leaving a bad scratch.

“Ack!” Kai yelled. He turned to Jay angrily, readying a fire attack for the snake.

“Kai, stop!” Cole yelled.

Kai paused, still holding the fire in his hand. “Oh, right.”

“Wait, Kai, look,” Cole pointed.

Confused, Kai looked down at Jay. The snake seemed surprisingly calm. He stared up at the flames in Kai’s hand, a mesmerized look in his eyes. He blinked a couple times as he stared at the fire, tilting his head to the side.

“What the heck?” Kai questioned, lowering his hand and dissipating the flame.

Jay blinked again before shaking his head. He turned back to Kai and growled. He got ready to jump, but Kai moved out of the way, causing Jay to crash into the wall.

“What was that about?” Kai asked.

“It looked like the fire calmed him down,” Cole explained.

“But why?”

“I don’t know why, but-” Cole stopped as he saw Jay run outside of the room. “He’s getting away!” he yelled.

Cole and Kai quickly started running after Jay, but he was too fast for them to catch up. He continued getting farther and farther away from the two of them until he managed to climb over the monastery's wall and escape and into the night.

“Who knew… a snake… could be so fast!” Kai commented, trying to catch his breath.

“We need to get him before he hurts someone,” Cole ordered.

Kai nodded. “We can take the bikes. They’ll be a lot easier than chasing him on foot.”

Cole nodded and the two of them ran to get their bikes. They both started them up, checking the radars built into them to see if they were picking up Jay’s signal.

“He’s heading for the city,” Cole informed after he picked up a signal.

“Then we’d better hurry,” Kai responded, riding his bike away from the monastery. Cole followed close behind, heading towards the city.

Cole shivered as they rode down the mountain. “Why’d he have to turn into a snake when it’s so cold out?” he complained.

“I think it feels nice,” Kai responded.

Cole rolled his eyes. “You’re the master of fire, of course you’re not cold.”

The two of them continued riding towards the city until Kai spotted something in the distance.

“I think I see him!” he called out.

“I see him, too!” Cole responded. He sped his bike up, Kai soon following. As they got closer to Jay, the snake heard the bikes arriving and turned around, freezing when he saw the two ninja arrive. Cole and Kai both skidded their bikes to halt before getting off of them.

“Jay, it’s us,” Cole tried to reason with the snake, slowly walking up to him. “We don’t want to hurt you.”

Jay backed up slowly, his body shaky. He let out a quiet growl before hissing at the two ninja and turning around to make a run for it.

“He’s getting away again!” Cole yelled. “We need to slow him down. Kai, maybe your fire will get him to sit still.”

“How am I supposed to get close enough to him if he keeps running away?” Kai questioned.

Cole thought for a moment. “You might have to shoot the fire at him.”

“What!? Won’t that hurt him?”

“Don’t shoot it directly at him, just close enough to get him to stop.”

“I can try,” Kai turned towards Jay who was still running away. Kai created a ball of fire in his hand before launching it towards Jay. The fireball just barely missed Jay, flying past him and landing in front of the snake, causing him to skid to a halt as the fire began to spread. Cole and Kai quickly ran towards him. Jay turned around towards the two ninja, fear in his eyes.

“End of the line, Jay,” Kai threatened.

Jay glared at the red ninja, recognizing him as a threat. Without hesitation, he leaped towards the fire ninja, knocking him over and slashing at his chest.

“AGH!” Kai yelled in pain as Jay sliced through his skin. 

Jay continued pinning the ninja down, ready to start slicing at him again until Cole kicked the snake to the ground. Kai slowly sat up, holding his chest in pain as blood started to spill from it.

“Kai, are you ok?” Cole asked.

“I’ll be fine…” Kai assured. “We gotta focus on Jay right now.”

Cole turned back towards Jay. The snake was beginning to back up again, scowling at the two ninja. Cole looked down at Jay’s claws. They were covered in blood. Kai’s blood. Cole could feel his distress building up as he continued looking at Jay in this state. He shook his head. “Jay, please!” Cole pleaded. “Snap out of it!”

Jay initially seemed unfazed by Cole’s pleas, as he continued growling at the two of them. But then for a moment, Jay recognized the sadness in Cole’s eyes. He began to relax his muscles slightly before turning towards Kai. Jay let out a strange noise the two of them hadn’t heard from him before. Something in Jay’s growl sounded sad, almost like a whimper.

“Jay?” Cole questioned, taking a slow step towards the snake.

Jay snapped his head back towards Cole and started walking backwards. Something about the way he looked at Cole made him look like a scared, helpless animal.

“It’s ok,” Cole reassured, his voice gentle, “we’re not gonna hurt you.”

Jay lowered his gaze before turning around, attempting to make a sprint away. Panicked, Cole quickly grabbed Jay’s tail, causing him to yelp in pain. Cole started pulling Jay closer to him, determined to not let him escape this time. Jay turned and started swatting at Cole’s hands to try and free himself. Cole winced at the pain, but kept his grip. Eventually, he got Jay close enough to where he could restrain him. He wrapped his arms around Jay, refusing to let go despite how hard Jay squirmed and attacked him.

“Kai! The fire!” Cole ordered.

Kai nodded, lifting up his hand towards Jay and igniting a flame. Jay slowly stopped squirming as he stared at the flame. His eyes went wide with wonder as he stared at it.

“Is he calm now?” Kai asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Cole replied.

Jay started blinking sleepily a couple of times before letting out a big yawn and closing his eyes.

“Is he seriously falling asleep right now!?” Kai asked angrily.

“Shh,” Cole hushed quietly.

They both watched silently as Jay fell asleep. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully until his body slowly started squirming more. His face scrunched up as if he were having a bad dream. He started whimpering which turned into growls which turned into cries. He dug his claws into the nearest thing he could find which just so happened to be Cole. Cole bit his lip as he tried not to cry out in pain. Jay continued squirming violently, crying out in pain as his body morphed back to normal. Cole eventually felt Jay’s grip soften as his claws turned back to human hands. His tail and scales started to disappear along with his fangs. Eventually, Jay stopped moving as his transformation finished.

“Woah…” Kai whispered before lowering his hand. The fire disappeared and Jay instantly started shivering violently again.

“We have to get him back to the monastery,” Cole said, still holding onto Jay. “Will you be ok?”

Kai nodded. “I’ll be fine. Let’s just get back.”

They both ran back to their bikes, Cole carrying Jay as close to his body as he could. He hopped on his bike and instantly started riding back to the monastery as fast as he could. Jay made multiple whimpering noises on the way, along with the occasional soft growl.

“Just hang on, Jay,” Cole whispered. “We’re almost there.”

Cole wasted no time getting Jay inside as soon as he entered the monastery. Cole’s mind was on autopilot as he ran into his own room. He set Jay down on his bed. The blue ninja continued shivering so Cole quickly piled all of the blankets he had onto the smaller ninja. Jay had finally stopped shivering and began to look more peaceful as his chest gently rose and fell as he breathed. Cole let out a sigh, smiling now that Jay was safe. He quickly walked back outside where Kai was just getting back.

“Here, let me help you,” Cole offered. “You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

“I’ll be ok,” Kai assured, not wanting Cole to worry over him. Cole helped Kai inside anyway, following him into his room so he could lay down. Cole grabbed some wet towels to try and stop the bleeding from Kai’s chest. Cole heard metallic footsteps approach and prepared himself for who he knew was about to walk in and see Kai badly wounded.

“Oh, there you two are.”

Cole turned around to see Zane, his robotic eyes shining in the dark.

“I heard some noise and didn’t know where-” Zane froze as he saw Kai. “Oh my God, what happened!?” Zane asked, rushing over.

“Jay transformed again,” Cole explained. “And he attacked Kai.”

“It looks like he got you, too,” Zane replied, looking at the scratches all over Cole’s body. Cole held his arm nervously while Zane turned his attention back to Kai. 

“Don’t worry, Frosty, I’ll be fine.” Kai assured, although his weak voice said otherwise.

“I will handle this, Cole,” Zane said. “You should go check on Jay, make sure nothing happens to him.”

Cole nodded, leaving the room. He walked down the hall to his room where he left Jay. He opened the door and felt a wave of relief when he saw Jay still sleeping in the bed, his face away from the door. Cole walked over and knelt down next to his bed. He gently rubbed Jay’s head, not wanting to wake him. However, Jay quickly let out a yawn before sitting up and blinking a couple of times before turning to Cole sleepily.

“Oh, hey Cole,” he greeted. He paused for a moment. “Why do you look so-” Jay froze as he saw the scratches all over Cole’s body. He looked down at his hands and saw that they were covered in blood. “No…” Jay whispered. “No no no no! Please tell me I didn’t-”

Cole just nodded quietly.

“Cole…” Jay whispered. He turned away from him, curling up into a ball.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Cole assured. “All I have are a couple of scratches.” Cole knew this was an understatement, but he didn’t care. “Kai’s the one who really got hurt.”

“What did I do to Kai!?” Jay asked, panicked.

“Uhh…” Cole replied, realizing he made a mistake.

Jay quickly jumped out of bed and ran out of the room.

“Jay, wait!” Cole called after him. He followed him into the hallway and then into Kai’s room. Jay stared in horror as he saw Kai passed out in his bed, Zane standing over him and tending to his wounds. Jay shook his head, feeling tears starting to build up. He started running away towards his own room.

“Jay!” Cole called again, running after him.

Cole entered Jay’s room and saw him throwing his blanket off his bed in a panic.

“Jay, what are you doing?” Cole asked.

“Cole, I’m freaking out!” Jay yelled. “Where’s Mr. Cuddlywump? He helps me calm down.”

“Oh… about that…” Cole replied, glancing awkwardly towards the other side of the room.

Jay looked back at Cole before following his gaze. He gasped as he saw his shredded up toy on the floor. “MR. CUDDLYWUMP!” he screamed running over. He grabbed bits of stuffing left on the ground, clenching them in his hands before turning back to Cole. “THIS HAS TO STOP!”

“I know,” Cole sighed. “We’ll figure out how to stop this, ok? In the morning, we’ll check up on Pixal and see if she found anything. But right now,” Cole let out a yawn. “I need some sleep.”

Cole started walking away, but Jay quickly grabbed his arm.

“Cole, you can’t leave me alone!” Jay panicked. “What if I change again?”

“It’ll be ok, Jay,” Cole assured.

“But what if it’s not?” Jay asked. “I… I’m scared, Cole…”

Cole sighed. “Would you feel better sleeping with me tonight?”

Jay nodded quietly.

“Alright then,” Cole said. “C’mon.”

****  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably my favorite chapter of this fic ngl. A while ago I posted a preview of this chapter on my tumblr so I'm excited to finally be posting it and also I'm just happy to be posting this fic in general. It's one I'm really proud of.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Pixal is unable to figure out what's wrong with Jay, the ninja decide to take a trip to the Serpentine to try and figure things out.

Light filtered through the window into Cole’s room. He slowly opened his eyes as the light shone onto his face. He let out a yawn as he fully opened his eyes. Jay was gently clinging onto Cole, still asleep. He was still wearing his ripped up gi. Cole was just relieved that Jay was safe and that he didn’t transform again over night. Cole attempted to slide out of his bed, trying not to wake up Jay. As soon as Cole started moving, Jay mumbled slightly before waking up.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” Cole greeted. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah,” Jay replied, sitting up. “You’re always really comfy to cuddle.”

Cole’s face turned red. “Uh… yeah, glad you slept well,” Cole rambled awkwardly.

Jay laughed. “Guess we should go see Pixal, huh?”

“Maybe you should change into something nicer,” Cole suggested.

Jay looked down at himself, forgetting he didn’t change his clothes. “Ha ha, yeah,” he laughed awkwardly.

After a quick change of clothes, Jay and Cole went to go meet up with everyone else. Pixal was still typing some things on the computer. Jay looked over at Kai nervously.

“Hey, Kai,” he greeted. “Are you feeling better?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it, Jay,” Kai assured.

“You  _ should  _ be laying in bed, resting,” Zane said.

“I’m not resting until we get this figured out!” Kai argued.

Zane let out a sigh, although at this point, he shouldn’t be surprised. Kai always put others above his own needs like this.

“So, Pixal, have you figured anything out?” Cole asked.

Pixal sighed. “No, I cannot figure out what’s wrong with Jay. This data isn’t making any sense! I’m sorry I couldn’t be more useful…”

“It’s ok, Pixal,” Lloyd assured. “You did the best you could.”

“You know,” Kai said, “if it’s a snake problem, why don’t we just go see the serpentine?”

“Huh, that’s a good point,” Jay agreed.

“Alright then, what are we waiting for?” Lloyd asked. “Let’s go see the serpentine.”

______________________________________________

The ninja all made their way to the sewers. They walked down the musty tunnels, careful not to step in anything gross. 

“It feels like it’s been so long since we’ve been here,” Jay commented. “I don’t even remember how to get to the serpentine’s village.”

“Don’t worry, I know where we are going,” Zane assured as he led the other ninja.

They continued walking down the path, taking in the scenery. They all felt somewhat uneasy from seeing all the strange substances dripping from the ceiling. 

“Can we slow down a little bit?” Kai asked.

“I knew you should’ve stayed behind,” Zane sighed. “Your wounds still haven’t healed.”

“C’mon, you know I’m not just gonna stay behind,” Kai replied.

“You sure you don’t wanna take a break?” Nya asked.

“I’m fine,” Kai assured. “I’ll be fine.”

Nya smiled at her brother before looking back at Jay. He looked a little uneasy, clearly still shaken up about what he did to Kai.

“Jay, you ok?” she asked.

“Yeah…” Jay replied. 

The others continued walking while Nya slowed down to walk with Jay. The two of them fell behind the rest of the group to talk.

“It wasn’t your fault, Jay,” Nya reassured.

“Then who’s fault was it!?” Jay snapped. “I just… I just can’t help but feel like it’s all my fault Kai got hurt. I… I could’ve killed him…”

“But you didn't," Nya reminded. “Cole told me you stopped attacking him, not because you couldn’t attack him, but because you didn’t want to. He saw a glimpse of you, the  _ real  _ you.”

Jay shook his head. “I don’t remember any of that…”

“Jay, you can’t beat yourself up for something you can’t control. You weren’t yourself. Whatever attacked Kai wasn’t you.”

Jay went quiet, avoiding Nya’s eye contact. After a while, he looked back at Nya. “So, you’re not mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“Because Kai-”

“Jay, I already told you, it wasn’t your fault,” Nya said. “I’m not mad at you at all.”

Jay and Nya were interrupted from their conversation when they all arrived at the serpentine’s entrance.

“So, do we just go in?” Kai asked, staring at the closed doors.

“I’ve got this,” Cole assured. He walked up to the door and knocked on it really loud, causing a loud noise to echo through the tunnels.

Jay covered his ears to protect from the loud noise. “Do you have to be so loud!?” he asked, annoyed.

“I wanna make sure they can hear us,” Cole defended.

After a short while, the door opened, a short constrictai on the other side. The serpentine’s face instantly shifted to an annoyed look as he saw the ninja. “Skales! The ninja are here!” he called.

The constrictai moved out of the way as Skales slithered up to the door. He looked at the ninja before letting out a groan. “What is it this time?” he asked, clearly annoyed.

“Uh, hey Skales,” Jay greeted. “We uh… need your help with some snake stuff.”

“You’ll have to be more specific,” Skales replied.

“Skales, something weird has happened to Jay,” Zane explained. “For the past two nights, Jay has transformed into a feral snake creature. He’s been attacking others and we don’t know what’s wrong with him.”

Skales gave the ninja a blank stare as he processed the information. “That is strange. Alright, come in.”

The ninja all followed Skales into the village. They walked down the main path as Skales continued the conversation. “The problem you described to me sounds vaguely familiar,” Skales admitted, “however, I don’t know all of the details about what’s wrong with your friend. But it does sound like a fangpyre problem, and I know who might be able to help you.” Skales looked over at another serpentine talking to someone else. “Ah, there he is,” he said. “Fangtom.”

The fangpyre general turned around, looking at Skales as the snake king slithered up to him. “Ah, Skales,” he greeted. “What might, you require, me for?”

“Hello, Fangtom,” Skales returned the greeting. “The ninja are here asking about a snake problem. Or more specifically, a fangpyre problem.”

“Hm?” Fangtom questioned, turning towards the ninja. “And what, is troubling you?”

“Well you see, I’ve kinda been turned into a weresnake,” Jay explained.

Fangtom’s two heads looked at each other, confused, before looking back at Jay.

“Really?” Cole asked.

“What?” Jay defended. “Weresnake is a much easier way to explain the situation.”

“Enough arguing,” Lloyd said. “Fangtom, do you know anything about this?”

“Hmm…” Fangtom thought for a moment. “I have heard about, your situation, but it was quite a long time ago.”

“Do you know how to fix it?” Jay asked, excitedly.

Fangtom shook his head. “I am not sure,” he replied. “I would have, to research, ancient readings, to check.”

“So, could you go check that real quick?” Jay asked, getting impatient.

“It may, take a while,” Fangtom informed. “It could take, multiple hours.”

“HOURS!?” Jay yelled. “I can’t wait hours! I want to know how to fix this NOW!”

“Don’t worry, Jay,” Cole assured. “We’ll just have to wait a little longer, it’s not that big of a deal.” He placed his arm on Jay’s shoulder to comfort him, but Jay immediately pushed it off.

“It’s not ok!” Jay argued. “I already hurt you and Kai! I don’t want to hurt anyone else! Who knows, Zane could be next!”

“I am made of titanium, so I doubt you could-” Zane was interrupted as Kai roughly nudged his arm. “What I mean is, everything will be ok.” he corrected himself.

Jay shook his head before turning around and walking away angrily. 

Cole let out a sigh. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“I’ll go too,” Nya agreed. “You guys stay with Fangtom and try to figure stuff out.”

The others nodded before turning to Fangtom.

“Follow me, to the archives,” Fangtom directed. He turned around and began slithering away, Kai, Lloyd and Zane following.

Cole and Nya both exitted the serpentine’s home and saw Jay curled up in a ball, facing away from them. They both looked at each other before walking up to him.

“You ok?” Cole asked.

“What do you think?” Jay retorted angrily.

Cole and Nya both sat down next to Jay.

“It’ll be ok, Jay,” Nya assured. “I know you want to fix this right away, but we need to give it time.”

“Yeah,” Cole agreed. “Fangtom and the others will figure this out, and then you’ll be back to normal.”

“Yeah…” Jay replied. “It’s just… this whole snake thing is stressing me out.”

“Maybe you should’ve stayed back at the monastery,” Nya suggested. “Try to take time to calm down.”

“Yeah, maybe I should've,” Jay agreed. He stared down at the ground.

“Maybe we should head back,” Cole thought. “Let Jay relax while you guys find out how to fix this.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Nya replied. “You ok with that, Jay?”

“Sure,” Jay agreed. “Anything to get out of this gross sewer.”

“Alright,” Nya said, standing up. “I’ll let the others know.”

“Thanks ” Cole responded, standing up along with Jay. “Let’s get going,” he said, turning to Jay.

Jay nodded and the two of them started walking away.

“Hold up,” Nya stopped them. “Before you go, I just gotta warn you that there might be a snowstorm soon. Just be careful driving back.”

“Will you guys be ok?” Cole asked.

“We’ve got Zane, we’ll be fine,” Nya assured.

Cole nodded before turning back. The two of them continued walking away, finding their way out of the sewers. They eventually found the ladder leading to the surface. Jay climbed out, closely followed by Cole. They reached the surface, and Jay shivered slightly.

“You getting cold?” Cole asked.

“Well I mean, yeah,” Jay retorted. “Nya literally said there was going to be a snowstorm.” Jay let out a yawn before shivering again.

“Woah, getting tired too?” Cole asked.

“I guess,” Jay replied. “But I wasn’t tired a moment ago. That’s a little weird,” he said. “Oh well, we’ll just get back and I can take a nap.” 

Jay started walking, but Cole froze. He quickly grabbed Jay’s arm.

“What the? Cole, what the heck?” Jay asked.

“Jay, that’s the first sign!” Cole remembered.

“Huh?”

“The sleepiness! You’re gonna transform!” Cole reminded.

“AHH!” Jay screamed. “We need to get back to the monastery!”

They quickly got into one of the vehicles they used to get here and started riding back to the monastery. Jay wrapped his arms around his stomach, worried about when the transformation would begin. 

“Cole?” Jay asked. “Do we have anything in here to restrain me in case I start turning into a snake?”

“I think you’ll be fine.” Cole replied. “It usually takes a while to start transforming after you start getting sleepy.”

“Ok,” Jay replied. He turned to look out the window. He noticed small bits of snow beginning to fall from the sky. “Looks like the storm is starting.”

“We’re almost there,” Cole said.

He continued driving until they finally reached the monastery. Jay started shaking more and more as it got colder. Cole and Jay both got out of the vehicle and began heading inside. Jay was walking slower than normal. He let out another big yawn.

“Jay, are you doing ok?” Cole asked.

“Yep!” Jay replied, an optimistic tone to his voice. A large snowflake landed on Jay’s nose which caused him to shiver drastically.

“C’mon, let’s get you inside,” Cole replied, grabbing Jay’s hand.

“Y-yeah,” Jay agreed. 

They both got inside the monastery. It was much warmer, but there was still a slight cold. Cole turned to Jay.

“You doing better now?” he asked.

“Yeah…” Jay responded. “I think I’m gonna go sit down in my room.”

“Alright,” Cole replied. “You want me to come, too?”

“Sure.”

The two of them walked into Jay’s room. They were instantly blasted by the cold air in his room. Cole looked over to see Jay’s window was still open.

“Oops, we forgot to close your window last night,” Cole said. He walked over to go and close it, but was stopped by Jay.

“Don’t,” Jay ordered.

Cole turned back, confused. "What? Why?" he asked.

“I already told you,” Jay continued. He looked up at Cole, his eyes a vibrant yellow. “I like the cold.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ninja learn the story behind the Cold Hearted and figure out why Jay's been transforming.

Cole stepped back. “What?” he questioned. “How are you already starting to change?”

“Cole, step away from the window,” Jay growled.

Cole looked back at the open window before turning back to Jay. “Why do you care so much?”

“SHUT UP!” Jay yelled.

“Jay, calm down,” Cole tried to reason with him. “There’s no need to get angry.”

Jay continued growling at Cole. He clenched his fist before taking some steps towards Cole. His claws started to rip through his gloves as he got closer.

“Jay!” Cole yelled. “Snap out of it!” Without thinking, Cole slapped Jay across the face. Jay shook his head, blinking a couple of times before looking back at Cole.

“Cole?” he questioned, his voice calm now.

“Sorry, Jay,” Cole apologized. “You were just freaking me out.”

Jay looked down at his hands, which were now claws. “AHH!” he screamed, stumbling back slightly.

“It’s gonna be ok,” Cole assured, reaching his hand out. But suddenly, Jay snapped his head towards Cole, growling once again.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” Jay ordered, slashing towards him.

Cole took a step back. “Jay, get a hold of yourself!” Cole yelled.

Jay’s scowl soon faded as his face turned to panic. He shook his head once again. “I can’t!” he replied. “I can’t focus on anything right now! I- ACK!” Jay quickly fell to the ground.

“Jay!” Cole shouted.

“I can’t stop this!” Jay screamed. “I can’t do anything to stop this!” Tears began to stream down Jay’s face as his body shook in pain.

“Just hang on, Jay!” Cole assured. “I… I’ll think of something!”

Cole shivered as a gust of wind blew through the window. “First of all, I’m closing this stupid window,” Cole decided. He turned around before slamming the window shut. Jay looked up but didn’t say anything. He was trying his best to fight off the venom spreading in his body, but he was reaching his breaking point. 

“Cole!” Jay cried out. “Help me!”

Cole looked down at Jay. He didn’t know how he would be able. As far as he knew, there was nothing he could do to help Jay now. Finally, Cole couldn’t stand to just watch Jay in pain.

Jay shut his eyes tight as he tried to fight off the pain. Suddenly, he felt something wrap around his body. He felt a strange warmth hit his body as it made contact with Cole’s. Cole held Jay tight in his arms, not wanting him to be in any more pain.

“Cole, what are you doing!?” Jay hissed.

“I don’t know!” Cole replied. “I just… I can’t stand to see you in pain!”

Jay suddenly felt his tears calm slightly. It felt as if his transformation had halted. He slowly raised his arms up, wrapping them around Cole’s body. As Cole continued hugging the smaller ninja, he felt his arms warm up, his lava arms appearing seemingly on their own. He felt an intense pain in his back.

“AGH!” Jay screamed, diggin his claws into Cole’s back from the pain.

“You’ll be ok…” Cole assured. “It’s going to be ok…”

______________________________________________

“Hmm…” Fangtom thought as he searched the shelves. “Skales, have you found, anything?”

“Nothing over here,” Skales called.

“You sure you have something about this?” Kai asked. “‘Cause it kinda looks like you don’t have anything.”

“We do,” Fantom assured. “It’s just, very old.”

“Oh, is this it?” Skales asked, pulling out a book.

Fangtom looked over before slithering towards Skales. He grabbed the book and read the cover. “Ah, yes, this is it.”

They all went over to a nearby table as Fangtom placed the book on it before opening it up. “The tale, of the Cold-Hearted.”

“Or ‘werenake’ as your friend called it.” Skales added.

“‘Cold-Hearted’?” Lloyd questioned. “What does that mean?”

“Long ago,” Skales read, “during the Serpentine Wars, the humans and elemental masters were initially causing much trouble for us serpentine. Although the Anacondrai were making great advances, the rest of the tribes were struggling to make a dent in the human army. So, together, the Fangpyre and the Hypnobrai came up with a plan to create a monster capable of taking out an entire human army.” he turned the page, revealing a drawing of a feral snake, very similar to Jay. “These creatures were referred to as the Cold-Hearted.”

“Why’s that?” Kai asked.

“Shut up and let me explain,” Skales hissed. He turned back to the book. “The Hypnobrai used their powers of hypnotism to take any human they could find, whether it be an enemy, or a civilian. Then, using the venom of a Fangpyre, the serpentine would begin to turn the human into a snake. But then, they would remove most of the venom, leaving only the smallest amount in the human’s blood, sitting dormant until the right circumstances were met.”

“So that explains how Jay still had the venom in him,” Nya replied.

Fangtom nodded. “The only way, to fully remove, the venom, is with, the antivenom.”

“And Jay didn’t have any of the antivenom,” Zane said. “It was his own body heating up that got rid of the excess venom.”

“But what causes him to transform?” Kai asked.

“The Cold-Hearted were forced to transform into their monstrous snake forms,” Skales read, “after being exposed to extreme cold.”

“Oooh,” Kai realized. “That makes a lot of sense! The weather  _ has  _ been really cold lately.”

“And with Jay not taking the extra precautions to stay warm, it only makes sense he would begin to transform,” Zane added.

“There’s still more here,” Skales interrupted, annoyed that the ninja kept interrupting him. He cleared his throat before reading again. “The Cold-Hearted would initially grow tired as the cold settled in. Most of them would succumb to the sleepiness, falling asleep before the transformation. However, once they change into their snake form, they would wake up once more. But they were no longer in control of themselves. The only thing these beasts knew was death and destruction. They were also extremely powerful, with claws that could tear through skin easily, and a venom that made their targets too weak to continue fighting, making it easy for the Cold-Hearted to finish off their prey. At first, the serpentine gained a massive advantage with the Cold-Hearted tearing apart the human army. However, they quickly turned on the serpentine, as they could not be tamed. The only thing they listened to was the destructive urges flowing through their veins. Realizing their mistake, the serpentine quickly turned the Cold-Hearted back to their human forms by exposing them to warmth. Once their bodies were warm enough, they turned back, with no memories of the destruction they caused.”

“That’s all good to know,” Kai said. “But how do we actually cure Jay?”

Skales and Fangtom looked at each other before looking back at the ninja.

“Are you against murder?” Skales asked.

“Uh, yes?” Lloyd replied, confused.

“Well then, no, there is no cure,” Skales replied.

“What!?” Kai yelled. “What do you mean there’s no cure!?”

“Once a Cold-Hearted has the venom in their blood,” Fangtom explained. “You cannot, cure the curse.”

“The only way to get rid of a Cold-Hearted is to kill them,” Skales simplified.

“Well we’re not gonna kill Jay!” Nya argued. “We’ll just have to figure out ways to deal with this.”

“Wait a minute,” Kai stopped. “Can’t you just cure him with the antivenom?”

“No,” Fangtom replied. “After the venom, becomes a part of the Cold-Hearted’s system, there is no way, of removing it. The venom, becomes immune, to the antivenom.”

“Wait… what happened to the Cold-Hearted from the Serpentine Wars?” Lloyd asked.

The entire room went quiet. After a while, Skales let out a sigh. “There are many things the serpentine aren’t proud of,” he admitted. “The fates of the Cold-Hearted is one of them…”

The ninja went quiet, realizing what the serpentine had done. Kai shook his head before speaking up.

“Why would you even create these snake monsters if you knew there was no cure?”

“We didn’t really have a choice in the matter,” Skales replied. “The serpentine were desperate. And not every Fangpyre or Hypnobrai were in support of this plan. I knew the plan would backfire, but as a low-ranking soldier, there was nothing I could do to stop them.”

“And I wasn’t even the General, of the Fangpyre, at the time,” Fangtom added. “I couldn’t, disobey the General.”

“We’re sorry we couldn’t help your friend,” Skales apologized. “But at least now you know what’s wrong with him.”

“Thank you for the help, Skales,” Lloyd said. “And you, too, Fangtom.”

The snakes both nodded, showing their gratitude.

“Wait a minute…” Nya thought. “If Jay turns into a snake because of the cold… We have to get back to the monastery!” 

Lloyd gasped. “The snowstorm!”

“We need to go stop Jay!” Kai replied.

______________________________________________

The other ninja rushed to the monastery as fast as they could. The snow made it difficult to navigate, but they didn’t care. As soon as they got to the monastery, they ran inside, not even caring if they dragged snow in.

“Jay!? Cole!?” Nya called.

The monastery seemed strangely quiet. The ninja were all frantically searching the place for Cole or Jay. Nya looked in Jay’s room and gasped.

“Did you find them?” Kai asked as the others joined. They all froze as they saw Cole unconscious in the middle of the room, with Jay nowhere to be seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here's a thing I forgot to mention before. Some of you might be wondering where Wu is and uhh to be honest, halfway through writing this fic, I realized I forgot about him. it was kinda too late to add him to the story and honestly he doesn't really need to be here so yeah Wu just doesn't show up in this story at all because by the time I realized he was absent, I just didn't feel like finding a way to squeeze him in there.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After getting back to the monastery and realizing that Jay is gone, the ninja go out to try and find him before anything bad happens.

“Cole? Cole! Wake up!” Nya shouted, shaking the unconscious ninja to try and wake him up.

“Urgh…” Cole mumbled. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the others. “Guys?” he asked, his voice weak. “What… what are you doing here?”

“Cole, what happened?” Kai asked.

Cole sat up rubbing his head. “I… Jay attacked me…” he replied. “He transformed again, and I tried to stop it, but it didn’t work.”

Nya placed her hand on Cole’s shoulder, but Cole quickly winced in pain. Nya instantly pulled her hand away. “Cole, are you ok?” she asked.

“Yeah… my shoulder just hurts a lot…” Cole responded.

Zane walked up to him, looking at his shoulder. There was a giant mark on it. It looked as if someone bit into him. Zane’s eyes widened before looking up at Cole.

“Did Jay bite you?” Zane asked.

“I… I don’t know, maybe?” Cole replied. “It’s a little hard for me to remember.”

Cole attempted to stand up, but quickly stumbled. Zane made sure to catch Cole before he fell to the ground.

“If Jay bit you, then you need to rest,” Zane said. 

“What? Why?” Cole questioned.

“Skales told us that weresnake venom makes the target feel extremely weak,” Kai explained. “Because then they can kill them faster.”

“But… Jay… he escaped!” Cole said. “I have to go find him!”

“We’ll find him,” Lloyd assured. “You stay here and Pixal can look after you.”

“Wait, where  _ is  _ Pixal?” Kai asked. 

They all looked at each other before rushing out of Jay’s room. They walked down towards the end of the hallway towards Pixal’s room. They opened the door and saw Pixal laying on the ground, powered off and scratched up. Her arm was ripped off and was sitting next to her.

“PIXAL!” Nya screamed, running over to the nindroid. Zane quickly ran over to her as well.

“We need to get her to the main computer,” Zane informed.

Nya nodded and picked up Pixal’s body, carrying her towards the computer. Zane grabbed her arm and they all headed towards the computer room. Nya gently set Pixal down while Zane plugged her into the computer. After a short amount of time, Pixal powered back on, letting out a gasp before sitting up.

“Pixal, what happened?” Nya asked.

“I was… attacked,” Pixal replied. “Jay attacked me. He had turned into a snake again.”

“And he did that much damage?” Kai asked.

“It’s nothing some quick repairs won’t fix…” Pixal assured. Zane handed her her arm and she clicked it back into place with ease. “But… I don’t know where Jay went. Is he still here?”

The others looked at each other nervously before turning back to Pixal. 

“He must’ve escaped,” Lloyd replied.

“We need to go after him before he hurts someone else!” Kai urged.

“Kai, you are in no shape to go after Jay!” Zane argued. “You’re still weak from the first time he attacked you.”

“But Kai’s the only one who can turn him back to normal,” Nya reminded. “Remember what Skales told us, once they warm up, they’ll turn back. And the longer Jay stays in the cold, the longer he'll be able to hurt people.”

“But I don’t want him to get hurt again!” Zane argued.

“Zane, I’ll be fine,” Kai assured, putting his hand on the nindroid’s shoulder. “I’m a ninja, I’m strong.”

Zane let out a sigh. “I guess we’d better get going then.”

“Alright,” Lloyd said. “Kai, Zane, Nya and I will go after Zane. Cole, Pixal, you two stay here to recover.”

Pixal nodded, but Cole still seemed hesitant.

“It’ll be ok, Cole,” Nya reassured. “We’ll find him.”

“I know…” Cole replied softly. “Just… be careful, ok?”

“Don’t worry about us,” Nya said. “We’ll be back soon.”

______________________________________________

The four of them made their way towards the city. It was still snowing, but not as hard as before. They had no idea how far Jay was since they didn’t even know how long ago he escaped. 

“Has anyone picked up his signal?” Kai asked.

“I haven’t been able to find him,” Lloyd replied.

“Me neither,” Nya added.

“I think I might have found his signal,” Zane informed. “But it’s very weak. He seems to be deep in the city.”

“Great,” Kai replied, rolling his eyes. “Let’s hope he hasn’t attacked anyone.”

Kai was immediately interrupted as his communicator picked up a news report.

“Citizens of Ninjago City, we order you to stay inside your homes if you are not there already. There has been what seems to be a feral serpentine loose in the streets. The police are attempting to capture this beast right now as we speak.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Nya said.

“We need to hurry,” Lloyd said, speeding his bike up, the others following close behind.

The snowstorm made it very difficult for them to navigate, but they didn’t care. They needed to find Jay as fast as they could. Luckily, there wasn’t a lot of traffic due to the snow.

“Zane, how close are we?” Lloyd asked.

“We’re getting closer,” Zane replied. “He should be nearby.”

“Keep your eyes out everyone,” Lloyd ordered.

The others nodded as they continued searching for Jay. They noticed some police cars in the area and began to get worried. They all skidded their bikes to a halt as they noticed a circle of police cars. They all got off of their bikes as they saw Jay surrounded by police officers. Jay hissed at them as they slowly surrounded him. He looked like he was on edge and couldn’t figure out where to run.

“Ah, it’s the ninja!” one of the cops said.

“Step away from him!” Lloyd ordered. “We can take care of this.”

“You don’t need to worry, ninja,” another cop assured. “This snake is very dangerous. We wouldn’t want any of you getting hurt.”

“You guys don’t know what you’re doing!” Kai argued. “Let us handle this.” Kai created a flame in his hand.

“Hey now, there’s no need for these drastic measures.” 

Jay continued to growl at the cops until he noticed the flame in Kai’s hand. He attempted to take a step closer towards Kai, but one of the cops quickly moved in front of him.

“Don’t move!” he ordered.

Jay blinked before growling at the cop, looking like he was about to pounce. Before Jay could attack, another cop quickly shot him in the side with a tranquilizer dart. Jay let out a yelp before falling over, quickly passing out.

“No!” Kai yelled. He attempted to get to Jay, but the cops stopped him.

“Sorry ninja, we can’t let you interfere,” the cop said.

“You idiot, that’s Jay!” Kai yelled.

The cop blinked in surprise. He turned back towards Jay as two other cops picked him up. “The blue ninja?”

“Yes! He attacked Cole and Pixal before escaping here! We came here to take him back to the monastery,” Kai explained.

“He attacked the others?” the cop questioned. He looked back at Jay again. “He’s too dangerous to just let him wander around. We need to take him to Kryptarium Prison.”

“No, we can handle this!” Lloyd yelled.

“He’s not dangerous, we know how to stop him!” Nya argued.

“Sorry ninja, but it’s for the good of the city.” 

The cops made sure to put vengestone cuffs around Jay’s wrists along with his legs in case he woke up.

“NO!” the ninja shouted, but the cops wouldn’t let them pass. 

They put Jay in the police car before beginning to drive off. The other cops began to return to their cars as well.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be able to visit him,” the cop assured. “But from what we’ve seen, and what you’ve told us, he’s too dangerous.”

The ninja just watched as all of the cops left, their friend gone.

“What do we do now?” Kai asked.

“We… we should head back to the monastery.” Zane replied. “We can think of what to do when we get out of this cold.”

______________________________________________

“I thought I could stop him…” Cole said. He was beginning to feel better, although he still felt a little weak from the bite. Pixal was examining his wounds while listening to him vent. “It looked like he wasn’t going to transform again. He managed to stop it for a while, but he still changed. I can’t help but feel like it’s my fault, that I could’ve done something else to help him.”

“You did the best you could,” Pixal assured. “You helped stall the transformation for a little while it seems. But there was nothing else you could’ve done. From the brief explanation Nya gave me before they left, your lava arms were able to keep him warm enough to temporarily stop the transformation.”

“I wish I knew about the cold before then,” Cole continued. “I could’ve done something sooner. I wouldn’t have hesitated to close that stupid window! I would’ve grabbed a blanket, I don’t know.”

“But you didn’t know. You had no way of knowing. You need to stop blaming yourself for this. It wasn’t your fault, nor was it anyone’s fault.”

“I know,” Cole sighed. “It just… scares me to see him like that. Seeing him in so much pain, seeing him so angry. Knowing that the Jay I know just… disappears when he turns into that snake.”

Pixal looked at Cole, her eyes sad. “Just be glad that  _ you’re  _ safe,” she reminded. “The ninja will find Jay. Imagine how upset Jay would be to find out he seriously injured you.”

Cole paused for a moment. “The others said that Jay’s venom made me weak so he could kill me…” he said. “But he didn’t do anything. After he bit me, he left. I vaguely remember him staring at me, just standing there before leaving the room. I blacked out after that.”

“Perhaps the Jay you know still exists in that snake form,” Pixal suggested. “He showed mercy. For what reason, I can’t be 100% sure about, but perhaps he was able to stop himself from hurting you even more.”

Cole went quiet as he started to process what Pixal had said. Was it true that Jay was still there? Was he in control? Cole was interrupted from his thoughts as he heard the others get back. He quickly jumped out of his seat and ran to meet the others.

“Did you find him?” he asked, urgently.

The others looked at Cole, worried expressions on their faces.

Cole quickly mirrored their expressions. “What?” he asked. “Where’s Jay?”

“He got taken away to Kryptarium Prison….” Lloyd informed. “We tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen.”

Cole stepped back, shaking his head. “They can’t lock him up in Kryptarium!” he yelled. “He doesn’t belong there! We have to do something!”

“I know!” Lloyd yelled. He paused, taking a deep breath. “We’ll figure out what to do, we just need time to think.”

“Ok…” Cole replied, calming down. “Can we at least go visit him?”

“Give them some time,” Zane replied. “I doubt they’ll let us visit him right away.”

Cole turned away from them, holding his arms. Nya placed her hand on his back.

“We can go see him tomorrow, ok?” she said.

“Ok…” Cole replied.

______________________________________________

The next day, the ninja all went to Kryptarium Prison. The guards made sure to keep a close eye on them to make sure they didn’t try to break Jay out. They lead them to one of the cells separated from the main room. After gathering some more information about Jay’s condition, they figured he’d be too dangerous to keep locked up with the other villains.

“There’s only enough room for one person to go in at a time,” the guard informed. “But don’t get any ideas. We have plenty of cameras and security systems in place to stop you.”

“We won’t try anything,” Lloyd assured. He looked over at Cole. “Well, you going in?”

“You guys ok with me going first?” Cole asked.

“Well you are the one who wanted to come see him,” Nya replied.

Cole let out a sigh before entering the room. The door slammed behind him. Cole looked back before looking over at the cell. Jay was sitting on the ground, his back to Cole. He was still wearing his ripped up ninja gi. Cole slowly walked up, not knowing what to say.

“Hey,” he replied, forcing himself to smile.

Jay jumped slightly before turning around. “Cole!” he cheered. He attempted to stand up to run towards Cole, but was instantly stopped. His arms were chained to the wall, preventing him from reaching the bars. The cuffs completely covered his hands, making sure he couldn’t claw anything up.

Cole grabbed the bars, staring at Jay with sad eyes. “I’m so sorry this happened.” he apologized.

“Don’t apologize,” Jay said. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. I know I probably hurt you.” Jay turned away slightly, feeling nervous about facing Cole. He shook his head, turning back to Cole with a smile. “But hey, it’ll be ok! After you guys get the cure for this, they’ll let me out and everything will go back to normal!” Cole flinched away slightly, avoiding Jay’s eye contact. He didn’t want to see the wasted hope in Jay’s eyes. Jay’s smile faded. “You guys are gonna cure me, right?”

Cole turned back to Jay. “The others were telling me what the serpentine told them,” Cole said. “There… there isn’t a cure…”

Jay felt his heart sink. He stepped back. “Wh-what do you mean there isn’t a cure!?” 

“There isn’t a cure,” Cole repeated. “We can’t fix this Jay, I’m sorry.”

Jay shook his head. “No… no no no NO!” he yelled. “There has to be a cure! There has to be a way to fix this! I can’t be stuck like this! I can’t! Cole, please!” Jay pleaded. “Please… I don’t want to be a monster, Cole…”

“I’m sorry, Jay,” Cole apologized. “But, even though we can’t fix this, we’ll get you out of here and we’ll manage this. We’ll learn how to live with this, ok?”

Jay turned away from Cole, walking towards the wall. “We can’t…” he whispered. “There’s no way to fix this…”

“Jay, did you hear me?” Cole asked. “We’re gonna get you out of here. It’s gonna be-”

“I heard you, ok!?” Jay snapped, turning back to Cole. “Things AREN’T gonna be ok, Cole! I’m a MONSTER! There’s no way to fix it, I’m stuck like this!” He looked away again. “I belong here…”

“Don’t say that!” Cole yelled. “You don’t belong here, Jay! This place is for dangerous people, you’re not-”   
“I ALMOST KILLED YOU, COLE!” Jay shouted. “They told me about how I attacked you yesterday! I almost killed you! I almost killed Kai! I belong here, I’m too dangerous to be around!”

“But you didn’t kill me!” Cole argued. “You stopped yourself before you could kill me, Jay. You stopped.”

Jay blinked in surprise, but said nothing. The entire room went quiet as the two of them stared at each other.

“You’re not a monster, Jay,” Cole said. “You don’t belong here.” Jay looked at the ground. “Jay, look at me,” Cole said. Jay continued to look away. Cole reached his arm through the bars, managing to grab Jay’s face. He turned his face towards him. He stared at Jay’s shimmering blue eyes. They were still watery, but Jay wasn't crying. “You’re not a monster, Jay,” Cole repeated. “We’ll get you out of here.”

Jay pulled away from Cole. “Just… be careful, ok?”

Cole stepped back. “Ok.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, I know. I was gonna post this a lot sooner but then I got sick oof. I just kinda forgot because I was really tired and exhausted, but I'm feeling better now. At least I think I'm feeling better, idk it's hard to tell sometimes.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ninja plan to break Jay out of Kryptarium Prison

“Are you sure about this?” Lloyd whispered. “We could get into a lot of trouble.”

“This isn’t about us, Lloyd,” Kai argued. “It’s about Jay.”

“I promised him I would do this,” Cole replied. “Whether or not you decide to come with us, I’m going to save him.”

It was night time and the ninja were discussing their plan to break Jay out of Kryptarium. Cole was adamant about the mission, but Lloyd began to get a little hesitant.

“I know,” Lloyd replied. “But what if they’re expecting us? And besides, they probably have a lot of guards around Jay’s cell. Maybe we should wait for this to calm down first.”

“I’m not just gonna leave him there!” Cole argued. “I can't just sit around doing nothing while Jay’s being treated like a dangerous threat!”

“Technically, Jay is still a threat,” Zane said. “However, I doubt the guards will be able to help Jay like we will be able to.”

“We’re wasting time!” Kai responded. “If we’re gonna do something, we need to go now.”

Everyone looked over to Cole. He was the one who wanted to go on this mission, so the others treated him as the leader of the mission. Cole looked over at Lloyd.

“Are you coming with us?” he asked.

Lloyd looked at the others before letting out a sigh. “Let’s go.”

The ninja all made their way towards Kryptarium, doing their best to sneak around. They made sure to wait for the lights of the watchtowers to move before sneaking closer to the main building. They had already mapped out where they would enter in order to make the fastest escape route.

“Ok, this should be the spot,” Cole whispered.

Cole cracked his knuckles as he prepared to punch through the wall. He knew it would be loud, but he also didn’t have another choice. He slammed his fist into the wall, creating a large hole that everyone would be able to climb through.

“Hurry!” Kai urged quietly.

They all climbed through the hole. It didn’t take long for the alarms to start going off. The ninja just kept moving down the hallway. As they turned the corner, they saw a group of guards.

“It’s the ninja!” one of them yelled.

“What are you doing here?” another one asked.

“We don’t have time for this!” Nya yelled. “Cole, you go find Jay. We’ll take care of the guards.”

“Right,” Cole nodded before running off.

“W-wait!” the guard said. “They’re trying to break Jay out!”

“Stop him!”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Nya threatened, the others standing by her side to block the guards off.

Cole continued running down the halls, trying his best to remember where Jay was being held. Luckily, the other ninja were doing a good job at blocking off the guards as there was no one trying to stop him. Cole eventually found himself in a familiar place.

“Yes!” Cole cheered. He ran down the dark hallway that led to the secluded cell. He reached the metal door that needed a code to open. Cole let out an annoyed sigh before activating his lava arms. Using all of his strength, he managed to pry the metal doors open, breaking them in the process. He ran into the room towards the cell. 

“Jay, I’m here to-” Cole paused as he saw Jay in his snake form, squirming in the cell. He was chewing the chains, clearly trying to free himself. “Oh, great,” Cole complained. 

Jay paused and looked up at Cole, only to instantly hiss at him. 

“Oh, quiet!” Cole demanded. “I’m gonna get you out of here, but you need to behave.”

Jay glared at Cole silently.

“Alright,” Cole replied. He grabbed the bars of the cell and pulled them open. Luckily, they weren’t made out of vegestone, so his elemental powers still worked on them. As soon as Cole stepped into the cell, Jay attempted to lunge at him, but since he was chained to the wall, he couldn’t actually do anything. Cole froze for a moment before realizing he wasn’t in any danger. He let out a sigh before walking over to the wall. He pulled on both of the chains before they came out of the wall. They made a loud CLANG noise as they hit the ground. Jay turned around and tried again to jump at Cole, but Cole quickly grabbed him.

“Nope, not this time!” Cole said.

Jay began growling and hissing, squirming aggressively as he tried to free himself from Cole’s grasp. He attempted to claw the ninja, but his hands were still covered with the metal cuffs.

“Maybe we should leave those cuffs on for a little bit,” Cole commented.

Cole quickly wrapped the rest of the chains around Jay’s legs to prevent him from kicking and then carried the snake over his shoulder. He ran out of the room, heading for the exit of the prison. 

The others were still fighting off the guards. Kai turned as he noticed Cole.

“He got him!” Kai announced. “C’mon, let’s get out of here!”

Cole ran past the others, and they quickly started following him towards the exit. Zane made sure to create an ice wall behind them so the guards couldn’t follow them.

Jay looked down at the others and started hissing at them, attempting to claw at them with his cuffed hands.

“He’s definitely seen better days,” Kai commented.

“You could say that again,” Lloyd agreed.

The ninja reached the hole Cole had created. After everyone was out, Cole created a wall of earth to block off the hole. They climbed into the vehicles they used to get to Kryptarium. They would have used the bounty, but they knew it would be harder for them to show up unexpectedly if they arrived in a large flying boat. Cole climbed into the driver’s seat of his earth driller, Kai jumping into the back seat. Cole tossed Jay back towards Kai after finally ripping off the handcuffs.

“Try to warm him up,” Cole directed.

“You got it,” Kai replied. 

Jay hissed at Kai, but quickly went quiet as Kai created a small ball of fire in his hand. The ninja all started driving off as a bunch of guards exitted the prison.

“They’re getting away!” one of the guards shouted.

“Just let them go,” another one insisted. “If Jay ends up causing more trouble, we’ll handle it. But for now, the ninja seem to know how to handle him.”

The ninja were nearing the monastery.

“How’s he doing?” Cole asked.

“He’s asleep now,” Kai responded, looking down awkwardly as Jay fell asleep on his lap.

“Alright,” Cole replied, “you may wanna move him.”

“Why?” Kai asked. “AGH!” he yelled as Jay began to dig his claws into Kai’s leg.

“That’s why,” Cole answered.

Kai attempted to shove Jay off of his lap, but he wouldn’t move. Jay started crying out in agony as his bones started to crack and morph. Realizing he was in pain, Kai stopped trying to push the snake. Jay’s grip slowly started to loosen as his claws morphed back to normal, human hands. His entire body started to turn back to normal.

The ninja all arrived back at the monastery. They got out of their vehicles and walked over to the earth driller. Cole opened the roof before gently picking up Jay. 

“I’ll take him inside,” Zane offered.

Cole nodded before handing Jay’s limp body to the nindroid. He had now turned back into his human self, but still looked very weak. 

“Ow ow ow,” Kai said as he slowly climbed out of the earth driller.

“Kai, are you ok?” Nya asked. “What happened?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kai assured. “Let’s just get Jay inside.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After getting Jay back from Kryptarium Prison, the ninja all assure the blue ninja that he's gonna be ok.

“Ugh…” Jay mumbled. He sat up, rubbing his head. He looked around and saw himself in his room, laying in his bed. “What the?” he questioned. “How did I get in my room? I thought I was at Kryptarium…”

Jay looked over as he heard his door open. He saw Zane walking in with some tea. His eyes widened as he saw Jay.

“Everyone! Jay is awake!” he called.

Zane walked over to place the tea on a table near Jay’s bed as everyone else rushed in. Jay looked around at everyone, a mix of confusion and worry on his face.

“How are you feeling?” Nya asked.

“Did you sleep well?” Lloyd asked.

“Uhh…” Jay replied. “I’m good… but I’m confused, what’s going on?”

“We broke you out of jail,” Kai replied nonchalantly. 

“WHAT!?” Jay yelled. “Guys, you can’t just break me out of jail! I was there for a reason! I was gonna hurt people, I’m a danger to everyone, I-”

“Jay.”

Jay stopped talking as Cole placed his hands on Jay’s shoulders. He looked at him with warm eyes.

“You’re gonna be ok,” Cole assured. “You’re safe, and that’s all that matters.”

“But… I hurt you guys…” Jay replied.

“But now we know how to help you,” Nya said. “We know what causes your transformations, and now we know how to prevent them.”

Jay looked at everyone. They were all smiling at him, making sure he was comfortable. Zane poured a cup of tea before handing it to Jay.

“This should make you feel better,” he informed.

Jay took the cup and took a sip of the hot tea. He smiled. “Thank you, guys…”

They were all interrupted as Pixal entered the room.

“There’s someone here to see Jay,” she said.

Everyone looked over at Jay.

“Huh,” Jay replied, “I wonder who it is.”

He set his cup down and climbed out of bed. As he went outside, he was surprised to see a serpentine.

“Fangtom?” Jay questioned.

“Ah, the Cold-Hearted,” Fangtom greeted. “I apologize, for showing up, so suddenly.”

“What do you want?” Jay asked.

“Well,” Fangtom explained, “There may not be, a cure, for you, but I believe, we may have found, something to help.”

“Something to help?” Jay replied.

Fangtom handed Jay a vial full of a vibrant red liquid. Jay gave a confused look at the vile before looking back at Fangtom.

“What is this?” he asked.

“Fangpyre, antivenom,” Fangtom replied. “It will not cure you, but it may help, in preventing transformations.”

“Woah,” Jay replied. “So, do I just need to drink this or what?”

“You just need to consume, a drop a day, and you should be fine,” Fangtom explained, “unless the cold, is too intense for you.”

“Oh, ok,” Jay replied. He opened the vile and put a single drop on his tongue before recoiling in disgust. “Ugh! That tastes horrible!” he complained. “Isn’t there a better tasting version?”

“You either deal with the bad taste,” Fangtom said, “or deal with becoming a dangerous, feral snake.”

“Uuuugh!” Jay moaned.

“That was all, I wished, to talk to you, about,” Fangtom informed. “I must, head back, to the sewers.” Fangtom began to slither away.

“Wait!” Jay stopped him. “What happens when I run out of antivenom?”

“Simply visit me, and I will give you more,” Fangtom replied. “It isn’t, too complicated.”

“Oh…” Jay replied. “Well, thank you, Fangtom!”

“Don’t mention it,” Fangtom replied. “Dealing with an annoying ninja, is much more appealing, than dealing with a Cold-Hearted.”

“I’m gonna take that as a compliment,” Jay replied. 

Fangtom started to leave as the other ninja came out to see Jay.

“What’s that?” Kai asked, looking at the vile. “Wait, was that Fangtom? What did he want?”

“He just wanted to help,” Jay replied, smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually don't like posting two chapters so close together, but this one was really short so I didn't wanna make people wait to long to read it. Most of my final chapters tend to be really short, which I think is a normal thing. At least it's normal for books. I think. Idk I don't read a lot of books.  
> ANYWAY, I don't know if I'm gonna write another multi-chapter weresnake fic like this, but maybe if I feel like writing season 11 I'll do that. I hope you guys enjoyed this fic because I had a lot of fun writing it :3


End file.
